Amazon to launch Kindle Fire HD tablets in India from June 27

Amazon seems to be quite aggressive in its expansion plans for India. Starting with books and DVDs, within a week of launch of its marketplace, Amazon has now announced to launch Kindle, Kindle Paper white and Android-based Kindle Fire HD tablet in India.

The Kindle Fire will be made available for sell on Amazon India’s site from June 27. The ebook reader and tablet will also be available at over one hundred retail outlets including Croma, Reliance Digital, E-Zone and Vijay Sales in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Pune.

Almost 10 months back, Amazon also launched the basic kindle in India through Croma retail physical stores and Junglee.com. Kindle is basically an e-book reader device which is wifi enabled and integrates seamlessly with Amazon’s online store.

Amazon Gadgets have been launched in India in a range between INR 5,999 – INR 21,999 with wifi only and wifi +3G models.

The Indian Kindle Store, launched in August 2012 offers over 1.7 million books priced in Indian Rupees. The Indian customers can now have access to over 1.9 million of apps, games and books, including more than 325,000 books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store and 600,000 books available at a price range below INR 200.

Also, from today onwards and till the next two weeks, customers in India can download one best-selling Kindle Book each day for free.

“Indian customers are passionate about books and reading, and we’re very excited to make the best-selling e-readers in the world–Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite–available to our Amazon.in customers,” said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager,

Before launching in India, Amazon also recently launched its e-reader and tablet in China. Also, with the latest opening of Amazon app store in India, It would not be much difficult for Indian buyers to find out their kindles this year.

In India, Snapdeal and Flipkart are the major online marketplaces that can give tough competition to Amazon. Flipkart, capturing a market share of around 40-45% in online books, is currently focusing on e-books segment in order to cash on its large online customer base and its brand name in books category. Also its headhunters are looking overseas for a mastermind who can revolutionize the e-Books category in India as the category head.

While, Amazon is a global leader, it would be worth seeing where this global vs local competition will led the ecommerce landscape in India.